Coming Home
by Ella Dean Pendragon
Summary: It's been three hundred and seventy six days since he left and Stiles has been living each day as it comes but all that is about to change. Non werewolf AU. Army AU, Sterek, Slash. Other pairings Scisaac, Dethan and Lydia/Aiden.


**Coming Home**

**A/N – Hey there, well after the shocking way that Sterek and its fans have been treated this season (Jeff just tell me why? We got the show where it is!) I vowed not to write or vid Sterek again (or until we got some action) but I just love Sterek too much to punish myself for what the show has done so I have decided to write/vid them when the feeling takes me and earlier I was watching some videos on YouTube of US Military Officers coming home and surprising their love ones and as I had been thinking of Sterek and the idea of Derek in uniform is stimulating this was created! This is AU as in no werewolf stuff but so should see most of your favourite characters. Also in this there is only a two year age gap between them because they met at school but it is set in the present but they are adults.**

**Pairings: Stiles/Derek (Sterek)**

** Scott/Isaac (Scisaac)**

** Danny/Ethan (Dethan)**

** Lydia/Aiden **

Stiles woke up to the smell of his dad cooking in the kitchen and for the millionth time he would have given anything for it to be the smell of freshly washed sheets, aftershave mixed with just the slightest trace of sweat but why should today be any different than the last three hundred and seventy six?

He sighs once and rolls himself out of bed and on to the floor of his childhood bedroom. He had stayed here more nights than not of the last three hundred and seventy six because their apartment was too big for just him so on the notion of helping out his dad with his healthy eating and so on he would spend more time back in the house he grew up in but he knew he wasn't fooling anyone.

After dressing in the first clean things he could find Stiles stopped by the mirror on the way out of the room, he so rarely glanced at his own reflection anymore he couldn't understand what everyone had been saying but he could see it now, his face had a gaunt look to it, he couldn't remember it being this thin but really he wasn't surprised, sure he had been away before but this was the last time and fate loved to smack Stiles in the face so he would not relax until he saw him again. Trying to make himself look more presentable he raked a hand through his hair until he caught a flash of metal, bringing his left hand down in front of his face he stared at the platinum ring that sat there and thought about where its counterpart was right now. No, he couldn't let himself think like that because if he did he would never stop. Instead he left the room to brush his teeth and then head downstairs.

Stiles was halfway down the stair case when he heard the ghastly laugh of his Aunt Lillian, he screwed up his face and asked himself how he could forget she was visiting. He stayed there for a moment wondering if he could sneak back upstairs and wait her out but that plan was scuppered when the stair he was on gave a creak and he heard the shrill voice shrike,

"Stiles is that you?"

"No, it's a mad axe murder." He muttered under his breath before arranging his face into what he really hoped was a neutral expression before descending the last few steps while replying,

"Yes, it's me Aunt Lillian." As he entered the kitchen he saw her sat at the far end of the kitchen table as his father sat in the seat at the middle, Stiles took up the seat on the other end, as far away from her as possible. From his position he surveyed the woman, despite being his Dad's sister they looked nothing alike, she was a short, thin woman with weak lips and watery grey eyes that held none of the warmth that his fathers did.

"Stiles Stilinski! You look as if you slept in those clothes! Have you ever heard of an iron?"

"Hale." Stiles muttered at her darkly.

"What? Speak clearly if you want to be heard." She told him as she clutched at her coffee cup.

"Stiles Hale, that's my name, as you well know." Stiles said as he began twisting his wedding ring around his finger. Aunt Lillian look ready to argue back but John cut in,

"Come on Lillian, at least let him have his coffee before you start on him." John got up to make Stiles a cup of coffee as Lillian found something else to comment on,

"That's another thing; a boy his age should not be dependent on coffee." Stiles gritted his teeth

"Really, kids today grow up too fast." Now that was the line.

"Kid? I'm twenty seven, married, I have a full time job, an apartment and my husband is God knows where fighting God knows who!" Aunt Lillian seemed to have been stunned into silence as John re-joined the table and placed a cup of coffee in front of Stiles.

Nothing was said for a few moments and then his dad broke the silence by asking,

"So Stiles, Lillian was saying that she is looking forward to the Lacrosse game tonight." Stiles gapped at his dad, was he really saying that they were bringing Aunt Lillian, notorious for thinking that gay marriage should be repealed and Don't Ask Don't Tell but back in place to a Lacrosse game that Scott, Isaac, Ethan and Danny would be at? Why should they have to be subjected to her?

"Yes, I am looking forward to seeing what has become of the team; they have been quite successful in recent years have they not?" Aunt Lillian asked,

"Yeah and the fact that their Coach is gay is going to be totally ignored right?" Stiles thought to himself, he chanced a glance at his dad who was giving him a warning look. Stiles shook his head, drained his still hot coffee, burning his mouth in the process, stood up and grabbed his keys and wallet from the counter and muttered something about going to Scott's.

"You will be at the game tonight right?" his dad asked him as he headed off down the hall, Stiles yelled back that he would be before catching the opener of Aunt Lillian's new conversation,

"Really John, I can not believe you let your son take his name." Stiles slammed the door so hard behind him he heard the glass rattle in the little windows at the top.

Stiles did end up going over to Scott and Isaacs place for a while, he played with their son Harry, his God son until the two year old finally fell asleep. He left then, knowing that this was the only time Scott and Isaac got alone these days. Before he left they made him promise that he would be at the game tonight.

Driving into town in the new Camero he stopped off at the store, knowing that he was staying at his own place now that the delightful Aunt Lillian was in town he would need a few things. Inside he ran into Lydia and Aiden, he didn't stop to chat as Lydia was seven months pregnant with twins and therefore more volatile than normal.

On his way home he drove past the school and saw Ethan giving the lacrosse team one last training session before tonight's big game. The team had been at the top of the league for years, since Stiles, Scott, Isaac, Danny and, no Stiles was not about to start crying while driving a moving car. He pulled up to the apartment building and was attempting to shoulder open the large glass door with three bags in his hands when it gave way from under him, righting himself he saw Danny on the other side.

"Danny! There he is! My hero!" Stiles said with a smile that even he knew didn't reach his eyes.

He rode the elevator past the seventh floor that Danny and Ethan lived on all the way to the top and if anyone asked, he did not spend twenty minuets summoning up the strength to go inside. When he eventually did go inside, he used the grocery bags as blinkers so that he didn't have to look around the apartment.

When everything had been put away and Stiles had rearranged the tins in the cupboard twice he couldn't avoid it any longer. A once over of the loft, ignoring things that would bring too much pain he realised that someone, Isaac no doubt, had obviously been around to water plants and empty the trash when Stiles just couldn't face another second in the place. He should sent him a basket of something, he wasn't sure yet.

He knew it wasn't the most productive use of his time but Stiles couldn't bring himself to do much more than lay flat on his back on their bed and try to pick up anything of his sent. The longer he stayed there the more echoes kept coming back to him, ghosts of them and what they had done in this place, they pressed at him from every angle until he couldn't take it anymore.

Thankfully by this time he had to leave for the game anyway. He arrived in the crowded parking lot with only a few minutes to go. Sliding into a seat beside Isaac who had Harry strapped to his chest with tiny little earmuffs on, he leaned forward to see across him and Scott to wave to his Dad who had Aunt Lillian on his other side who seemed determined to get as far away from them as she could without toppling off the other end. Seconds later Danny slid into the seat beside him.

"Just been wishing Ethan good luck, he is really nervous." He told Stiles.

"Well, it's his first final as Coach but come on; this team is almost as good as it was when we were on it." Stiles said, smiling for real this time. Just then a hand fell on his and Danny's shoulders, turning around the saw Aiden,

"Have I missed anything? I just escaped, erm I mean I just left Lydia with a bubble bath and chocolate." And not a moment too soon Stiles thought, the dark circles under his eyes were heavy. They chatted for a minuet until the last few seats were taken and then they turned to the front when the Principle started addressing the crowd.

"Thank you all for coming out to support our team in their final game of the season but before we get to the game I would like to talk about another matter." At this moment around three people wondered onto the field, two official looking people and a man in an army uniform with his hat pulled low carrying a massive flag and Stiles' chest tightened, did he really have to sit though this? He thought about people being over there more than others would deem healthy.

"As we all know at this moment there are countless men and women serving overseas to keep our land safe and keep us free and we are so grateful for them." Stiles was looking at his hands again, twisted the ring on his finger but he could feel gazes flicker over to him, their group of eight was well known in the town through the sporting, academic and political achievements they held between them so naturally everyone knew.

"However, tonight there is one less; one of our very own has, by God's will been returned to us." Stiles' head snapped up so quickly he could have given himself whiplash. It all happened in a blur; the Principle stopped talking and moved out of the way, from behind him the flag was being lowered and the hat removed and there he was.

"Derek." Stiles breathed and for a moment the whole world was gone and they were they only people that existed, the perfection that was him with his stupid beautiful megawatt smile and then he had to be with him.

He stood up, Danny had already vacated his seat and was stood on the aisle with a grin on his face. 'the bastard, he knows, they all know." He thought to himself but none of that mattered at the moment, all the mattered was that he was taking the steps two at a time, vaulting the fence and pelting across the field and then finally after three hundred and seventy six days he was back in those arms, his face buried in that neck, his arms around that neck, that sent back in his nostrils and back home.

The whole stadium was applauding, his dad was in tears but none of that mattered, it was as if the noise was coming from a stereo that had been dialled right down as he pulled back to finally look into those never-know-exactly-what-colour-they-are eyes again, to touch his face again and have those strong hands wipe away the tears that were falling unchecked from his eyes now before, after three hundred seventy six days, eleven hours and twenty eight minuets finally kissing those chapped perfect lips again.

**A/N – Well I hope that was a big enough dose of feels for everyone? I had to put the thing in about Derek's eyes because people can not seem to agree what colour they are, blue, green or hazel so not wanting to upset anyone I covered all bases. Hope you enjoyed!**

**Fin**

**x**


End file.
